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Iska Tull
Iska Tull is a young, half-elf bard whose dream, compulsion, obsession is to understand the world around her and capture it in song and story. While she channels her magics and the majority of her creativity through her violin, her journal is always at the ready for quick reference sketches, jotting down plots points and arcs of potential epics, or simply noting the sights, sounds, and feelings she experiences. Iska's mindset is often one of wonderment and joy, excited by the potential of learning and experiencing new things. History Prelude Iska is from a relatively humble town, born to and raised by her human mother, as her elven father was absent from her life. Her mother had always told her that he had to leave as he was quite the famous musician and needed to spread his songs and tales across the lands; limiting his beauty to just one village was a disservice to the world, of course. Hearing this, Iska was motivated at a young age to take up performing. The validity of this statement was often questioned by members of the community, though, with many doubting it and believing Iska's mother was merely trying to save face. She acquired a violin and chose it as her medium, as it was diverse enough to blend the elegant somber strings with harsher, fiercer notes when necessary. She proved to be a natural and devoted her time to learning entertaining parlor tricks, eventually harnessing the resonant magic within her to produce dancing lights much to the delight of her fellow youth. Iska and her mother never had much, so times were tough most of her life, though her mother attempted to shield her from these realities. As time went on, though, her mother grew weaker and weaker, beginning to fall to some illness she was unable to diagnose. Iska took care of her when she could and often played her tranquil songs by her bedside as she lay ill. One chance day, the song itself seemed to give her mother life, dulling the pain and pushing the illness back for the briefest time. Iska continued to refine this healing magic and soothed her mother as often as needed. Over time, the illness worsened, and the healing tones of Iska's violin were not enough to ward off the pain. When the caravan of the famed Barios Cass came through her village, she sought a meeting with the man and earned it as a result of her performing capabilities. Barios promised to heal her mother completely in exchange for Iska's service in his caravan. She readily accepted, thinking it to be the quickest way to alleviate her mother of her pain. After a visit from the caravan's healer, her mother began to regain consciousness and appeared to be recovering. Iska could not stay and celebrate long, though, as her newfound duty as the caravan's traveling bard called her away. Caravan Life She traveled with Barios' caravan for some time, learning new tales and songs and taking in the world around her. The caravan itself even captivated her for some time, full of a diverse mix of shopkeepers, guards, and wagoners. Of particular interest to her was Ba'Tee Ha'Til-athar, a man truly unlike any she'd seen before. The treasurer of the caravan, Ba'Tee stood out with his dark skin, miscolored eyes, silver-platinum shaved to crown with intricate designs cut along the sides and a top braided so fine, so tiny that while it seemed like thick thread, it was made of thousands of smaller braids, running down to his back. Apparently this was the look of many from Qual'Vareene, a distant land. Ba'Tee kept to himself mostly, and the contents of his wagon remained a mystery to Iska for some time. One evening while approaching Sojourn's Crossing, he and Barios had a loud disagreement about not going into the city. Iska overheard the him say he was planning on enlisting the services of Arcana Mystica. Knowing the argument would continue for some time, Iska snuck into his cart, and found herself surrounded by the most intricate and finely crafted clockwork fascinations: miniature figures that danced like real human people, music boxes, hovering items lifted by propellers. With her time limited, she took in as much of the strange new artifacts as she could before scrambling out. One day, she became particularly entranced by a frayed leaf blowing in the wind and wanted more than anything to get a better look at its natural beauty. Without a second thought, she chased it for some time, completely ignorant of the length and direction of her journey. Finally catching up to it, she studied it intensely, before an older man singing and sprinting along the roads happened upon her. There she met Luck and would go on to join many others she would soon call her makeshift "family." Introduction The Price of Adventure Stormbreaker The Hounds of Barios Cass Startled by Luck's sudden awakening at the presence of fiends, the party was caught off-guard by three dark beings Iska would immediately recognize as the mutated, monstrous new forms of Barios' hounds. Just as her vision had shown her, the hounds were larger, more fierce than ever before with almost other-worldly powers, discharging electric shocks and sending blasts of fire. In the midst of battle, one of the hounds suffered a striking blow removing chunks of its necrotic flesh. This gaping wound would [https://youtu.be/PJpxEi466kg|reveal to Iska] the true nature of the beasts: a clockwork exoskeleton that could only be the work of Ba'Tee.' ' As she stared transfixed in horror at the revelation, a blow from the hound knocked her unconscious as she was snared by its mechanical tongue. Before she could be dragged into its waiting maul, Kel snapped it in two in his direwolf form as Axle channeled the magic of a blood rune to help her regain consciousness. After a harrowing battle, the hounds lay dead for the moment; Iska's vision predicted they would rise again by moonlight, stronger even still. Before heading down into the sunken temple with the rest of the group, Iska studied the severed tongue, noticing an ancient arcane word: skaggeth. As she uttered the phrase, the tongue seemed to snap rigid in place. With a few swings, Iska grew familiar with the new potential weapon and claimed it for herself. A Flame Ignited Fatesinger Magic Chorus of the Muses Euterpe's Harmony A song learned from the mysterious sheet music recovered from the Green Dragonflight Syndicate. This song forms a harmonic bond between the caster and the world around them. For the duration of the spell, the caster understands and can speak all languages once they have been spoken as if they were the caster's native tongue. Thalia's Ballad A song learned from the mysterious sheet music recovered from the Green Dragonflight Syndicate. The caster weaves a song that wraps around a person and warps their identity into one of the many characters the caster has captured with music. Once per day, caster may use this ballad to disguise person for up to six hours. Chords of Fate Gandry's Armored Heart A song inspired by the unbreakable spirits of those around her, Iska began to sing this song as a means of comforting Gandry before he fell back into hopelessness and despair when telling his story. An impromptu vocal piece, Iska would learn through creating this song and instilling within it the chance to cheat death, she had created a new chord of fate, a series of songs with unspeakable power controlled by "the sisters." Category:Characters